HMS Victory, launched at Chatham in 1765, was a 100-gun ship of the line with a length of 186 feet (57 m), a displacement of 2,162 tons, and a crew of more than 800 men. As a flagship of Britain’s Channel and Mediterranean fleets during the American Revolution and French Revolutionary wars, the ship saw extensive action against France and its allies. In 1778 under Admiral Augustus Keppel, and again in 1781 under Richard Kempenfelt, it led engagements near the island of Ushant (Ouessant). In 1782 it flew the flag of Admiral Richard Howe in the relief of a besieged garrison at Gibraltar, and in 1793 it served under Admiral Samuel Hood during a brief occupation of Toulon, Fr. In 1797 the Victory was the flagship of Admiral John Jervis in his destruction of a Spanish fleet off Cape Saint Vincent, Port.

At the Battle of Trafalgar the Victory’s flags gave Nelson’s famous signal “England expects that every man will do his duty.” The Victory itself engaged two French ships of the line; from the topmast of one a sniper fired the shot that mortally wounded Nelson, who died in the ship’s cockpit in the midst of battle. After carrying Nelson’s body home, the Victory continued to aid in Britain’s continental blockade during the Napoleonic Wars. By the 1830s the ship had been dismasted and moored at Portsmouth, Eng., as a stationary flagship of the naval command. There it remained until 1922, when it was placed in dry dock and restored to its condition under Nelson. The ship and an attached maritime museum have attracted tourists since 1928.

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